Star Wars Episode VII: The Empire of Dreams
by US Potter Princess
Summary: With the descruction of the Galactic Empire the rebels now seek to restore the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Council led by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, but before the future can be seen he must come to terms with all his past. New character: Ari Nubora.


_Who is she?_

**Ari Nubora – Jedi Knight**

_What is the story on her mother?_

2 days before the infamous birth of the Galactic Empire and the arrival of Luke and Leia, Ari was born on the planet of Naboo to Saki, handmaiden to the Queen of Naboo at the time of Padme Amadala's senatorial appointment and Anakin's fall to the Dark Side. Saki was sent to the aide of Padme during the senator's visit to Coruscant and present at the time of the birth of the twins. Then, at the request of Obi-Wan Kenobi who feared the Emperor's quest for the knowledge of the twin's existence, Saki goes into hiding. Failing to adequately hide herself before the Empire found her, Saki was soon murdered leaving her baby girl, Ari, in the hands of the child's father, Janus Nubora, a soldier in the Naboo Special Army and Saki's lover. Through a mix of pity for the baby and her deceased mother and a hatred for the newly created Galactic Empire, Janus took the baby and fled to the small planet Tatooin on the outskirts of the Empire. Janus proceeded with careful caution and gave Ari his surname, took a job as a mechanical distributor for the local farmers and never mentioned anything to Ari about her mother or her home planet.

_How does she meet Luke and find the truth of her past?_

Years pass on and, although Janus has seen hints of the power of the Force in his young daughter he refuses to let her know about her past and her talents for fear the Empire would seize her and possible kill her. Through her father's business and the local schooling on Tatooin, Ari meets Luke and the two become friends as they both share similar feelings of restlessness and adventure. Although they understand that the possibility of leaving Tatooin is very small (763,582 to 1 if you ask C3PO) they both find comfort in the fact that they are not alone in their feelings and in the realization that both her father and his uncle are dead-set against their leaving. One night Ari and Janus get into a heated argument that leaves both of them highly upset and Ari feeling more lost than ever. Janus takes pity on her and, although he leaves out a great deal, proceeds to tell Ari about the planet she was born on. He fails, however, to tell her the truth about her mother and the facts on which she died and explains in a well constructed lie, about how her mother died in the war when the Empire took over Naboo and how he had to flee with Ari for fear the Empire would kill them both because of Janus's appointment as a soldier for his planet's army. Janus also fails to mention that he and Saki were not married or even betrothed, but were merely lover's that mutually benefited from the birth of an offspring. After hearing of her father's so-called heroics Ari forgives him for keeping the secret from her and silently controls her urge to flee Tatooin and tells her father she is content with the life she is leading. Secretly inside her burns a fiery hatred toward the Empire and a burning desire for revenge for her mother.

_What happened that last day on Tatooin?_

A few years pass by and Ari grows stronger in her talents with the Force, but, being under the watchful eye of her father, she has yet to realize her own power. One morning she is out bargaining with the Jawas while her father is fixing a droid in his shop when three Imperial Storm Troopers enter through the front gate toward the shop where her father is. Sensing that something wasn't right she sneaks around the shop to a crack in wall to see what is going on. In the meantime, the Jawas take off in their storage base quickly. Ari takes no notice of the Jawas and proceeds to listen to and watch her father. She can hardly hear a thing but she is able to pick up a few words such as "two droids", "Empire" and "secret files". She watches her father protest and, without warning, one of the Storm Troopers blasts her father with their laser guns and then they proceed outside. Ari presses herself against wall to avoid their eyes then runs in to the shop and cries over the body of her murdered father. Her tears only fall for a few minutes when she smells smoke and hears the sound of the Storm Troopers heading her way. She runs out of the shop and is immediately grabbed by two Storm Troopers. She screams and begs them to let her go and they laugh at her efforts while telling her she will be the next to die. Ari, with the power of the Force she doesn't even know she has, pushes the Storm Troopers away from her, knocking them to the ground. With this small amount of time Ari runs to her father's speeder and speeds away towards Mos Eisley Spaceport, leaving her home in smoldering ruins. She leaves the speeder on the outskirts of the spaceport and runs into the cantina where Luke and Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi are making a deal with Han Solo to fly them to Alderaan. As Luke helps her hide from the Storm Troopers she tells him everything that has happened and confesses that she will never be able to return to her house again. Together she and Luke convince Ben to let her come with them and, using the money she gets from her father's speeder, convince Han as well. The rocky journey to Alderaan in the Millennium Falcon begins.


End file.
